A site about the ephemerality of the socio-urban world

Category Archives: Slums

I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at the Strøm Music Festival and speak at their Strøm School on music and public space. I prepared some text which I didn’t actually end up using. But I thought it was worth sharing…

Were it not for the freezing winds, driving rain and half a foot of mud underfoot, walking around the Jungle camp in Calais could be mistaken for Dharavi or Kibera. The makeshift shelters of wood and tarpaulin, the improvised roads, open sewers and stench of human waste; there are many ugly ways in which the Jungle compares to the slums of the Global South. But also, there are thriving businesses, social services, educational programs and human creativity on full show; there are many positive ways the Jungle compares. And like the slums of Mumbai, Nairobi or other megacities of Global South, the Jungle is a product of the inequalities radiating from the nearby metropolis. But in this case, that metropolis is London. Continue reading →